OSI/MHS Configuration and Management Manual

Introduction to OSI/MHS

OSI/MHS Configuration and Management Manual—424827-003

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Route-Selection Criteria

A route specifies the path by which incoming messages are directed to a specific

recipient or a set of recipients. You define a route by adding a ROUTE object

(subordinate to an MTA object) or by adding an APPL object. Routes can be specific,

general, catch-all, or partially or fully wild-carded.

A specific route is a route that contains the exact O/R name attribute for a recipient.

For example, if a recipient is expected to have an O/R address that contains C, A, P, U,

P, S, D and messages containing this O/R name are to be routed to a gateway

application, then the APPL object address must include all attributes.

A general route is a route that contains sufficient information to define a set of O/R

addresses. If the UAs within a set are addressed by C, A, P, O, U with P, S, G varying,

it is possible to define a route (ROUTE or APPL object) that contains only C, A, P, O,

U. This can be called hierarchical routing.

A catch-all route is one with a wild card (*) in every field of the O/R name. Catch-all

routes are used to ensure that every message is routed somewhere, even if its name

form was not anticipated in the configuration.

A wild-carded route defines a set of recipients that share part of a network address or

numeric user identifier. A wild-carded route applies only to numeric and terminal type.

A partially wild-carded route contains the first part of either the network address (for

terminal form) or the numeric user identifier (for numeric form). Where a specific route

cannot be found for a terminal or numeric recipient, the first part of the recipient’s

network address or the numeric user identifier is compared with the partially specified

country-name (C) mandatory mandatory conditional

network-address mandatory

numeric-user-identifier mandatory

organization-name (O) conditional

organization-unit-names (U) conditional

personal-name (P), including

surname (S) and given name (G)

conditional

private-domain-name (P) conditional conditional conditional

terminal-identifier conditional

terminal-type conditional

Domain-defined:

domain-defined (one or more) (D) conditional conditional conditional

Table 1-1. Forms of O/R Addresses (page 2 of 2)

O/R Address Forms

Attribute Type Mnemonic Numeric Terminal

mandatory = always present

conditional = presence or absence depends on the domain requirements